1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital home network system, and more particularly, to an intelligent management apparatus and method of a digital home network system.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As information technologies are developed, technologies which provide various services to a user in home environment like a digital home network system have been developed. The existing digital home network system employs a one-to-one service which provides one service to one user at once. However, such a one-to-one service is difficult to satisfy various demands of all users in home environment where a plurality of users having different inclinations exist and various devices manufactured by different manufacturers exist compositively. Thus, in order to simultaneously provide services suitable for each user's special character, more efficient management of the digital home network system is required.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a management apparatus 10 of a conventional digital home network system. The management apparatus 10 includes a wake-up assisting device 11, an interest assisting device 12, an air conditioner management device 13, a heating management device 14, an electrical power management device 15, and a security management device 16, and it can includes additional management or assisting devices. The management apparatus 10 controls the digital home network system to perform various services. Here, the management apparatus 10 should control the digital home network system to provide services suitable for various users. However, since the users have different personal inclinations, collision and interference may occur between services when the services are provided to the users. For example, there exists a case where “wake-up assisting service” is provided to users A and B having different schedules. If a wake-up time of the user A is 7:00 am and a wake-up time of the user B is 8:00 am, the wake-up assisting device 11 controls its operation (alarm) according to a wake-up time of the user A whose wake-up time is earlier than the user B's. As a result, the user B gets interfered because he should wake up according to the user A's schedule. Also, there exists a case where “multimedia service on demand” is provided to different users C and D. For example, if the user C is interested in a movie program and the user D is interested in a sports program, the interest assisting device 12 does not decide which user's interest between the users C and D it should satisfy to provide the service. Thus, context collision between the services occurs.
A cause of collision between the services is not limited to users' different inclinations but can include all various contexts which may occur in home environment. The collision between the services according to different contexts is caused by independent operation of the devices in the management apparatus 10. For example, when “home security service” is executed, the security assisting device 16 turns on all lights in the house as if some one is in the house to thereby prevent any possible invader. Also, when “home management service” is executed, the electrical power management device 15 disconnects all unnecessary power when there is no person in the house to reduce power consumption. Thus, there occurs a collision between the home security service and the home management service. Similarly, when “home automatic heating service” is executed, the heating management device 14 detects a drop of the room temperature to thereby control the drive of the heating system. Also, when “home automatic air-conditioning service” is executed, the air-conditioner management device 13 detects an increase of the room temperature to thereby control the drive of the air conditioner. As a result, the home automatic heating service and the home automatic air-conditioning service conflict with each other, and there may occur a case where the two services should be provided infinitely. A problem resulting from the collision between the services is classified into an interaction problem which happens for one service and an interaction problem which happens between different services. Also, the collision between the services may cause the user's intervention. That is, whenever a service collision happens, the user should select one service between the services having collision.
As described above, the management apparatus 10 of the conventional digital home network system cannot appropriately cope with the collision between the services which often happens. Thus, the management apparatus 10 has a problem in that the user should intervene whenever a collision between the services occurs.